Elastic fiber fleece material

ABSTRACT

A fleece fabric material provided with closed slits which improve its flexibility, feel and stretchability, the length of the slits not exceeding 6.5 mm.

Oct. 9, 1973 G. H. TESCH 3,764,450

ELASTIC FIBER FLEECE MATERIAL 'Filed March 26, 1969 Fig! 0 Fig.2

United States Patent O 3,764,450 ELASTIC FIBER FLEECE MATERIAL GuenterHorst Tesch, Fribourg, Switzerland, assignor to Breveteam, S.A.,Fribourg, Switzerland Filed Mar. 26, 1969, Ser. No. 810,564 Claimspriority, application Switzerland, Mar. 26, 1968,

4,566/ 68 Int. Cl. B321) /02, 3/10 US. Cl. 161109 5 Claims ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE A fleece fabric material provided with closed slits whichimprove its flexibility, feel and stretchability, the length of theslits not exceeding 6.5 mm.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This inventionrelates to a fleece fabric material which has improved flexibility, feeland stretchability.

Description of the prior art The known fleece materials which aremanufactured from textile fibers by mechanical or chemical hardeninghave generally a rather hard feel and, in addition, only a smallexpansion capacity and elasticity, these latter being attributed, forthe most part, to the rigid bonding together of the fibers. As aconsequence, articles of clothing manufactured from fleece materialshave met with little success in comparison to such articles whenmanufactured from textile fabrics. Reference is expressly made to theadverse experiences with fleece materials in the book by Dr. R. Krcma:Textilverbundstolfe (VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1963) and in fact onpage 19, paragraph 5 articles of clothing of fleece materials have alsoalready been manufactured, for example occupational coats, aprons,especially inexpensive coats etc. These articles have not, however, metwith any significant level of commercial success as they lack thesoftness, suppleness and elasticity of fabric. As possibilities for theimprovement of the fleece materials, Krcma makes reference to thedevelopment of suitable types of binding agents, of a suitabledistribution of the binding agent on the fiber system, and of otherpossible methods of manufacture.

The intensive research carried out throughout the world however, to findwarp and means of avoiding the [difliculti'es present in the knownfleeces has, up till now, failed to meet with any success, in the sensethat no fleece material is commercially available which has theflexibility and softness, equivalent to or even approaching that ofconventional textile fabrics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based on the problemof effecting a substantial improvement in the feel and draping capacityof the fleece material.

This problem is solved, according to the invention, by the provision ofa plurality of slits having substantially closed contours disposed inpatterns, the length of the said slits being not more than 6.5 mm.

The term slit is to be construed in this specification and appendedclaims as relating to an elongate cut in which the dimension in thetransverse direction thereof is infinitely small and approximates zero.

Mention is made in the aforesaid book of synthetic material foils havingslits therein (see page 207), the slits impart a high degree ofextensibility into the foil. Although the provision of slits in foilshas long been known, no suggestion has been made to utilize such slits'ice in the context of fleece lining materials, notwithstanding the longand intensive investigations carried out into the problems met with inproducing satisfactory fleece lining materials.

That no attempt has been made to apply the principle of forming slits infleece fabrics is possibly a direct consequence of the fact that theslits provided in the foil are relatively long and as such appear likelyto detract from the coheseion of the fibers or other textile propertiesof the fleece material. Upon the expansion of a foil having conventionalslits therein, normal holes result which if present in a fleece materialwould render same substantially unusable in the context of a textilematerial. For this reason the book cited above on page 212, suggestsproducing a comparatively small number of binding points in the fleecematerial to give it a substantial form changing capacity upon stressing.

The present invention provides a fleece material which bears favourablecomparison with conventional textile fabrics.

By means of the slits as they have been applied in the fleece materialin accordance with the proposal of the present invention, not only isits feel (draping possibility) substantially improved, but so too is itsstretchability to the extent that the fleece material approximates thecharacteristics of textile fabric. A similarity exists in the actualfleece structure in that, as in a fabrice.g. in linen weave-alternatelya thread is bound and floated, so in the slitted fleece one part of thefibers is cut and another part of the fibers is uncut or bound. Thatslitting as means of achieving a requisite handle in fleece, thereby torender the fleece applicable as a lining material where it was thoughtpreviously to have no application, has not hithertofore been proposedmay be due to the fact that it appears ridiculous first to bind fiberstogether and then to cut them again. However, only by this seeminglyfoolish measure can fleece materials, which hitherto always had apaper-like feel, be suitably used in the context of disposable clothingmanufacture and laminates.

In my course of the investigations it has become clear that contrary toexpectation the absorbability of fleece materials slit according to theinvention is considerably increased. The additional advantage renderspossible the use of more absorbent slitted fleece materials as, forexample, bandages, disposable napkins, underwear and absorbent papers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be describedfurther, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows the scheme of a row of pattern of slits with the importantreferences,

FIGS. 2 to 5 show cross-sections through fleece materials withdifferently formed slits,

FIG. 6 shows a special form and arrangement of the slits,

FIGS. 7 and 8 show, in plan view or in cross-section, further slittedfleece materials.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the simplest form of theinvention shown in FIG. 1 the slits D are disposed in staggered adjacentrows E that are substantially parallel to one another. The distance Abetween successive slits D of a given row E and the distance C betweenadjacent rows E are preferably equal to the slit length B. Hereby asurprisingly substantial in crease of surface is possible.

If the slits are long relative to the thickness of the material, thensuch slits are, for many purposes, too conspicuous and upon strongexpansion of the material the crosspieces turn out of the surface. Ithas, therefore, been proved to be particularly advantageous in practiceto provide the fiber fleece material, designated hereinafter for thesake of brevity as materials, with so-called minislits which have sucha. favourable ratio between material thickness on the one hand andlength of slit, separation of slits and of rows on the other hand thatthe disadvantageous phenomenon aforesaid does not occur, the slits nolonger being conspicuous or being almost invisible. For example, amixture of cellulose and polyamide fibers of approximately six den.thickness and 40 mm. length is so bonded by means of a dispersion ofSBR-latex that a fleece material of about 150 g./m. results, the fleecematerial having a natural expansion of about 0.5% in each direction. Ifmini-slits of the configuration shown in FIG. 1 are cut in the fleecematerial, the slits each being about 2 mm. in length with successiveslits in a given row and adjacent rows being separated by approximately2 mm., then the expansion crosswise to the direction of the slits isincreased by about 3 to The slits can be opened up fractionally withoutthe bridge parts arching up substantially from the plane by tensioningthe material in the transverse direction thereof, the fleece revertingto its original condition immediately after the tension is relieved. TheWhole structure acts extraordinarily elastically and the presence of theslits does not detract from the appearance thereof as would be the caseif relatively long and closely spaced slits were formed.

Such fleece materials may also be provided with elastic coatings of suchcharacter as will readily allow an expansion of, for example, 3%, due tothe aforedescribed slitting. During the adhesive spreading procedure,along the direction of the slits, the slits do not gape open, and hencepractically no adhesive material penetrates the slits to stick the sidefaces of the slits together. In the aforedescribed embodiment, the slitsextend completely through the whole product, whilst in anotherembodiment the slits penetrate only partially through the thickness ofthe material. This latter form of slit, on lateral stretching, givesrise to the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, which latter is to be comparedwith FIGS. 3 and 4 which show an arrangement wherein the slits arestamped or cut through the material. 'FIG. 5 shows a material structureslitted from both faces, this form of slitting being favoured forthicker articles. By means of the arrangement shown in 'FIG. 5 we areable to produce particularly uniform products having satisfactoryexpansion properties Without the slits being too readily visible,because upon lateral expansion there remains a thin layer of fiber whichis not cut through and which can expand with a spring-like eflect.

A further embodiment of the invention gives rise to a particularlyinteresting material structure which can expand in all directions, thearrangement of the slits being in accordance with FIG. 6. FIG. 6 showsthe diagram of a material provided on one side With slits D and on theother side with slits F arranged perpendicularly thereto, the slitsextending only partially through the material and imparting atwo-direction expansion characteristic without continuous slit marking.

The formation of slits in fleece materials has the particular advantagethat, because of the generally random fiber orientation, a furthertearing of the slits is not to be feared as would be the case, forexample, with materials not containing fibers, such as, for example,regenerated cellulose. If a certain direction of fiber orientationdominates, then it is generally advisable to form the slitsperpendicularly to this direction hence to cut through as large a numberof fibers as possible. The slits have the generally desirable advantageof increasing the air permeability of the product. In consequence of theexpansion and permeability characteristics of the material it is nowpossible, for the first time, to employ such fleece materials alsodirectly in the clothing sector where formerly only fabrics, wovenmaterials and knitted materials were usable. The material is of use inthe manufacture of clothing, as well as being suitable for use as alining material for textiles, as a corset material, and also in thehitherto actual main field of fleece materials such as material inserts,shoulder pads, and the like particularly when there is a requirement ofbetter expansion behaviour, as for example, in the inner lining ofclothing made from knitted materials.

It is also possible with fleece material products made of syntheticfibers or with fibers having heat sealing properties applied thereto, asby coating or spraying with thermoplastic materials, or by insertion ofa binding mass on the forming of the slits, to effect at the same timeas the slits are formed a hardening of the fibers among themselves. FIG.7 shows such a fleece structure. An additional strong binding by meansof the cut welding is obtained at the points M. The fiber binding ishereby considerably increased and, in addition, satisfactory additionalelasticity and expansion are attained. Such fleece materials may alsoconsist of fibers having different melting points and partly ofnon-melting fibers. Coarser fiber fleece materials may be used withadvantage for cleaning purposes, the slits carrying the cleaning massand entrained dirt therein and permitting of a satisfactory expansion ofthe material so that one can draw such materials around surface edges.

As has already been stated, by means of the slitting of the materialsabsorbability is surprisingly increased. For example a 30 cm. long and7.5 cm. wide section of a fleece material having slits of 4.0 mm. lengthdisposed in rows, the distance between adjacent slits of the same rowbeing 2.0 mm. and the space between adjacent rows being 1.2 mm. wascompared with a like piece of the same unslit fleece material, thepieces were immersed in a dye bath coloured with the dye known under theregistered trademark Neocarmin Type B. After 45 minutes the dye solutionwas sucked into the slit material section a distance exceeding by 6.5cm. the rise in the unslit fleece material section. The increasedexpandability due to the slitting of the fleece material has, as aconsequence, a certain tendency to tear further at the slit ends.Therefore, it is recommended, where the further breaking strength is tobe increased, not to displace the rows of slits in respect of eachother.

The fleece material according to the invention is suitable not only forthe described purposes but also for insulating, sound-damping,decoration and building purposes; it may also be made in the form ofcorrugated paper in which the slits are made preferably in the directionof the corrugations and, in fact, in the troughs of the corrugationsand/or through the corrugation crest and base simultaneously crosswiseto the direction of the corrugatlons.

The term fleece fabric material employed in the foregoing descriptionand appended claims includes non-woven fabrics consisting of acontinuous fleece of vegetable and/ or animals and/or synthetic fibersbonded by adhesives or by needling.

I claim:

1. A non-woven fabric comprising:

(a) a plurality of fibers in said fabric,

(b) said fibers being bonded together throughout said fabgic by anadhesive agent to form a cohesive fibrous we (c) the cohesion of saidweb being interrupted by a plurality of localized cuts distributed overthe entire area of said web,

(d) the cuts having dimensions of approximately zero in the transversedirection and less than approximately 6.5 mm. in the lengthwisedirection,

(e) parts of said fibers being severed by said cuts,

(f) whereby said fabric is rendered substantially more flexible anddrapable than the same fabric in the uncut condition.

2. A non-woven fabric as defined in claim 1 wherein said fibers arerandomly oriented in said web.

3. A non-woven fabric as defined in claim 2 wherein said fibers areprimarily oriented in the plane of said web.

4. A non-woven fabric as defined in claim 1 wherein said slits aresubstantially invisible.

5. A non-woven fabric as defined in claim 1 wherein said slits extendentirely through said web.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Francis 16185 Plansoen et a1161165 Voigtman 161165 Messerli 161--109 Rasmussen 26447 X Costa et al.26447 X Harwood 26447 X Long et a1. 22987 6 Scragg 57-157 Such 161-190 XSack et a1. 156-251 X Hull 161113 X Trimble 161112 X OTHER REFERENCESZeisberg, M. D., defensive publication No. 544,271 published December1968, filed April 1966, class 161', sub. 109, published in 857 O. G.1037.

GEORGE F. LESMES, Primary Examiner M. E. MCCAMISH, Assistant ExaminerUS. Cl. X.R.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION October 9, 1973Patent No. 3, 764, 450 Dated Inventor(s) GUENTER. HORST TESCH It iscertified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In the drawing, Sheet 1, FIG. 1, dimension "B" should be corrected tolit to the other end thereof as follows:

extend only from one end of a single s In the drawing, added to ahorizontal slit as follows:

Column 2, line 9, "coheseion" should read "cohesion- Signed and sealedthis 26th day of November 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

, McCOY M. GIBSON JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner ofPatents US COMM-DC 6O37B-P69 .5. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 19690-366-334,

FORM PO-1050(10-69)

